Pacino and De Palma set to team up for Paterno biopic

Twenty years after Carlito's Way, Al Pacino and Brian De Palma are set to team up for a biopic of the disgraced college football coach

It's been many years since Scarface and Carlito's Way saw Al Pacino and Brian De Palma work together, and indeed it has been quite some time since either of them have been operating at the level they did in their prime. That said, news of them teaming up once more is quite exciting. It has been 30 years since Scarface was released and 20 years since the release of Carlito's Way, and the project to bring them together after such a period of time is a biopic of Joe Paterno.

The name might not mean a great deal to those on this side of the Atlantic who don't follow American sports, but Paterno was for a significant period of time a legend in college football, having coached Penn State in some capacity for over half a century. His winning record and approach to the game were highly respected. However his reputation has since been tarnished following a scandal involving a former assistant of his being involved in the sexual abuse of young boys, and an investigation into the scandal by the FBI revealed that Paterno had concealed the actions of his assistant. Paterno has since passed away following complications with lung cancer.

It will be an incredibly tough story to tell, particularly given the fact that it's so fresh in the memories of those involved, but if done right it could be a fascinating film that charts one of the most high profile falls from grace in recent times. But I would imagine that the margin for error is very small and there's a high danger that this could be seen as sensationalising a controversial subject matter.